Obsidian, the second album from Will Wiesenfeld under his stage name Baths, was released last year to a chorus of acclaim from the alternative music press.
Its heavy sonic sensibilities and darker subject matter juxtaposes the musician’s lighter faring debut, Cerulean.
Contracting the serious E.coli bacterial infection not only informed this shift, but was the reason behind the cancellation of his Australian tour in 2011. Wiesenfeld’s Melbourne show on the weekend though, added another dimension to go along with the already opposing forces of his two LPs.
While his classically trained skills and experimental electronic edge have greater prominence in a live context, a Baths gig relies less on Wisenfeld’s craftsmanship than it does on energy.
Having the added presence of Morgan Greenwood on stage for this tour has allowed the performer to become a raw and grittier live entity.
To those who have only heard the musician’s comparatively lax style of recorded music, this might sound confounding.
But everytime Wiesenfeld screeched down the microphone and stretched his almost whiny vocals – bizarrely in a pair of short shorts – he brought a newfound intensity to his music.
This was no more apparent than on ‘Worsening’, which transformed the opening track from his sophomore album into a far more impassioned plea of, “Where is god when you hate him most?”
The focal point of the show, though, came via ‘Earth Death’, which was twice as menacing and electrifying as its recorded counterpart, even if the vocals were mostly obscured through a wall of sound.
While much of the set comprised of cuts from Obsidian, these moments were intersected by the onstage duo’s instrumental experimentations.
As impressive as they were and important in making the set fluid, the crowd’s body movements, which began as early as Kirkis and Andras Fox’s supporting slots, became noticeably less rabid.
However, as soon as an opening note of a track from Obsidian or Cerulean played, the crowd immersed themselves in the music – so much so that those towards the back spread themselves out so they could let their limbs fly without bruising those around them.
However, as much as Wiesenfeld’s live show allowed insight into a different facet of Baths, it gave little than enough to come to terms with it.
Abruptly exiting the stage after arriving less than an hour before, the duo quickly reemerged and apologised for the awkward encore.
Explaining that it was “not the longest set”, Baths preceded to play the Passion Pit-esque hit from Cerulean, ‘You’re My Excuse To Travel’ and Obsidian highlight, ‘No Eyes’.
While it’s unsurprising that few tracks from Wiesenfeld’s debut were played, given their lack of vocals in comparison to its predecessor, more from his sophomore release could have been aired.
This makes it all the more frustrating given Baths’ long absence from our shores. A longer set of the same proportions and Wiesenfeld wouldn’t have just had the audience moving, he would have had far greater certainty that more would be in attendance come his next tour Down Under.
